Slab Happy!

I never new I could get so excited over a cement slab!  But I did
and I am!  We tried to pour the slab back on July 24th.
After totally untypical July weather and two attempts to pour, the most beautiful day possible arrived on August 14th!  The men were at the site at 6 AM. The morning temperature was 67 degrees!  That is also very untypical for Texas in August.  The humidity was low. The sun was shining and the high for the day was 92 degrees at 3:45 in the afternoon.  What a day!

I was up at 4 AM to be sure the homemade sticky buns I made the night before began to rise, before baking in the oven  This was a day to celebrate and I wanted to show my appreciation to all involved with some hot out of the oven breakfast rolls.

I arrived at 6:30 AM.  The sun was due to rise at 6:45 AM this morning.  The crew was already there with the pumper truck ready to go.

6:35AM August 14, 2014

Just as the sun is rising

The concrete truck funnels the concrete into the back of the pump
truck, while one man guides the nozzle inside the form boards.

The concrete is poured into the outer footings first.  It's just 7:04 AM and already 2 concrete trucks have emptied their load.  It will take 3 just to get the perimeter footings completed.  The trucks drive onto the property in quick succession.  Because of the rain damage to the original footings, they had to be re dug after the re-bar was removed.  We ended up needing a lot more concrete to fill the now wider footings.  It took 10 trucks filled with concrete to complete the pouring of the slab.  WOW!  That's a lot of concrete!.

The man in the picture on the left, far back is using a
control pad to help guide the boom from above to assist
the man holding the nozzle.  It takes a lot of men to get
this project done right.

By 7:35 AM they place the first board down to begin
the leveling process for the slab.  

Notice that they are still pumping concrete, but now that the footings are filled, they use the overflow from the footings and just enough added as they go, to keep the slab level.  I was impressed that the rapid work was being done almost in total silence.  Everyone knew their part.  Look closer and you will see that all the concrete is INSIDE the forms!  Nothing was wasted.  This team did an EXCELLENT job controlling the flow and distribution of the cement.  It was impressive.

3 minutes later one man begins to float the same area.

Trimmed and scored

10:00 AM

The men use paddle boards to walk and kneel on while working on the soft cement.  In no time the cement will harden, so it is key to get into areas before it hardens on the surface to cut, slope, trim and score areas that need to be addressed.  These spaces would include the side and back porches slabs, and garage bays.

By 10:30 AM they start 1 machine.

Then there were 2.  Then they added a third!

This man is focused on the garage bay contours.  It
was an unexpected feature that will be a nice addition
to the garage.

At 12:21, they begin to shower the slab with water as
the men continue to work.

At 12:31, they begin to remove the form boards.

The men clean their tools and pack up.

Slab Happy!

Our slab is complete!!!! After 3 weeks of delays from weather, we have the foundation complete.  I'm here doing my "happy dance"!  Never knew I would fall in love with concrete.  But I'm very proud of it, after watching all the steps and care that all of the men did to create it.  As an artist, I felt that I was seeing firsthand real craftsmanship.  These men took pride in their work.  Worked well together, sang, played music, whistled signals to each other.  There was real joy on the work site.  I admit, I was not present when they had to tear out the re-bar and plastic and prepare for a redo after the heavy 6" of rain we had.  So, perhaps then they were not singing and whistling.  But in the end, it was a glorious day! Great weather, good food, and the best day ever after a long time of waiting.

Tomorrow the framing begins!!!!!  Let's build a house!